Erasing Erasure

Jennifer Biddle
Dot, circle, difference: Translating Central Desert paintings
in Cartographies: Poststructuralism and the mapping of bodies and spaces edited by Rosalyn Diprose and Robyn Ferrell
(1991)

Unlike in northern Australia, where images figured historically upon more permanent materials (bark or wood), Central Desert images were drawn in the sand or on the body. It wasn’t until 1971 at Papaya that an art teacher, Geoff Bardon, in inviting some men to paint the school walls, was instrumental in these designs being rendered transferable to canvas. The creation of the acrylic painting as object of attention, comment and permanence has shifted the focus of interpretation from that of the productive aspects of these paintings to that of interpreting their status as product. This is a problematic status for images historically marked by their capacity for erasure — images that are produced within performative or enactive contexts where the production of the designs (who is allowed to mark whom with what and when) is inseparable from the ensuing product itself.

Juxtaposing here with remarks about another artistic practice.

By far the most studied aspect of bebop improvisation is the use of precomposed figures and quotations, selectively borrowed from other musical compositions. the surface repetition, and the use of recognizable quotations — sometimes called licks, tricks, patterns, motives, riffs, or crips by musicians — are distinctive features of this genre.

In Basquiat's work, originality is defined by premeditation, imitation, and even the repetition of certain compositional elements.

Jordana Moore Saggese Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American Art

If you are still wondering about the juxtaposition, see Japingka for artwork by Australian Indigenous artists. Watch the images move. Be moved.

And so for day 1764
12.10.2011